Problems persisted in the north-central part of the state as well, where close to 24 percent of Somers was dark, 16 percent in Stafford and almost 10 percent of Ellington.

There was more tough talk aimed at Connecticut Light & Power on Monday, nine days after the snowstorm that wreaked havoc on trees and power lines and plunged more than 800,000 power company customers into darkness.

During a late afternoon press conference at the state Capitol, Gov. Dannel P. Malloysaid CL&P would be held accountable for its response to the storm and the frustratingly slow pace in restoring power to hard-hit communities in the Farmington Valley, the Tolland-Vernon area and West Hartford.

CL&P said it would again miss a goal of restoring power to 99 percent of its customers by Monday night, but said all would be restored by Wednesday night. The company missed a 99 percent restoration goal Sunday.

Throughout CL&P's service area, lights continued to come back on Monday as more than 1,000 crews cleared tree debris, repair damaged power lines and equipment, and reconnected service lines to houses and businesses. The company said that nearly 2,700 crews continued restoration work Monday night.

Meanwhile, cities and towns around the state prepared polling places for municipal elections, which are going on as planned Tuesday.

Secretary of the State Denise Merrill said she has been in frequent communication with local election officials and utility company managers.

"Our message all along to the more than 160 cities and towns has been 'follow the election laws, do what you can to preserve as much normalcy as possible to cut down voter confusion, and be practical,''' Merrill said at a noon press briefing. "There is no perfect solution to this particular Election Day. The laws are designed to be flexible under certain circumstances, and this is definitely one of them.''

Nine communities — Avon, Bloomfield, Newington, Plymouth, Simsbury, Somers, South Windsor, Stafford and Vernon — have shifted at least one polling location. In some cases, the polling place has no power; in other cases, it is being used as an emergency shelter or warming center. The full list of changes to municipal polling places is on the Secretary of the State's website.

One particularly hard-hit town, Farmington, went to court Monday to delay the election, but a judge denied the town's request, said Av Harris, a spokesman in the secretary of the state's office.

West Hartford, which was also badly impacted by the storm and its aftermath, is not changing any of its polling places at this point, Merrill said.

Malloy said Monday that an outside firm's examination of CL&P's handling of the storm would provide key information that state officials could then used to hold those responsible accountable.

The governor said CL&P failed to meet the "industry standard" for performance during and after the storm, which hit the state with wet, heavy snow Oct. 29.

"But I don't even have to hold them to an industry standard," Malloy said. "I'll hold them against their own standard. They failed. They told us that they were going to have completed something [restoration of 99 percent of customers by Sunday night] and they failed to do it. So if they have their own standard, I suspect they failed an industry standard by even more."

CL&P President Jeff Butler, in a press conference Monday evening at the State Armory, pledged to have all customers restored to power by midnight Wednesday. That's 11 days after the storm hit the state.

Butler said he also welcomed an examination of his company's response to the storm and said it would find the company did things right in some areas and fell short in others.

Crews have been massed to work in the hardest-hit areas, Butler said. In the Farmington Valley and West Hartford, 597 crews were at work. In the Tolland-Vernon area, 661 crews were working, Butler said.

James A. Muntz, presidnet of Northeast Utilities Transmission, was assigned to oversee restoration work in the Farmington Valley and West Hartford. NU is CL&P's parent company. Ken Bowes, CL&P's vice president of energy delivery services, was overseeing work in the Tolland-Vernon-Somers area.

When told that some Simsbury residents reported seeing virtually no crews in their neighborhoods Sunday afternoon and evening, Butler responded, "I see the trucks. There have been a lot of lights turned on in the last eight days."

Butler acknowledged that people are upset and angry with him, but asked that residents not take their frustration out on crews. He said CL&P employees as well as outside crews are working hard to restore power. "Right now, for CL&P we're 10 times our normal work force," he said.

Natalie Swan of Colonial Drive in Somers, another hard-hit town served by CL&P crews from Tolland, said her neighborhood looks much like it did Oct. 30 in the immediate aftermath of the storm. Her neighborhood, just off of Route 83, is still a mess.

"We have had no help in this neighborhood," Swan said Monday night. "We have tree branches that are on top of wires and one of the roads in my neighborhood is still closed. We think we should probably see the tree trucks before we see the people to help with the lines, but nothing here."

Malloy, asked how he'd hold CL&P and its executives responsible, said "through the regulatory process," such as by raising questions about whether the company can seek to recover losses for storm damage. Malloy also said his office has been talking with the office of state Attorney General George Jepsen about such issues. He would not commit himself when asked if he might seek legal action against CL&P; he said that depends "on what we might find" after the investigation. "And I presume we're going to find some degree of malfeasance which may arise to a recoverable action."

More than 40,000 CL&P customers were still without power Monday evening.

The investigation of how CL&P and United Illuminating responded to the storm will be performed by a Washington-based consulting firm headed by James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Clinton administration.

Witt's firm has agreed to work for free. Charles Fisher, a vice president with the Witt consulting firm, said the company agreed to do the investigation on a "pro bono" basis after Maryland Gov.Martin O'Malleyput the firm in contact with Malloy. Fisher said the Witt firm has "been asked by the governor to conduct an expedited, high level, independent assessment of the utilities restoration."

Fisher said: "We will seek to answer the following key questions: What were the utilities' emergency restoration plans? To what extent were the employees and … managers trained on those plans? And to what extent did the company exercise the plans, and finally how did the actual execution compare to the plan and to standard practice?"

Answering that questions will involve examining "protocols" for handling and repairing downed wires, plans for hiring out-of-state restoration crews, and communications by utilities with state and local government officials, Fisher said.

Fisher said about a half-dozen Witt representatives would conduct their research this week, and are requesting documents from utility companies. He said they plan to interview utilities managers and front-line employees on work crews, as well as local government officials. He said the company would work with Jepsen's office and issue its findings and recommendations no later than Dec. 1. Malloy said that if any outside consultant was hired to oversee implementation of changes, Witt would not be guaranteed anything and would have to compete with other firms.

The Simsbury region covers the hard-hit Farmington Valley, Bloomfield and West Hartford, where more than 10,000 homes and businesses remain without power. The Tolland area serves the north central part of the state, where many small towns continue to cope without power.

Butler said the crews would not be released until all CL&P customers have power restored, and he asked for patience as the workers continue their task.

The briefing, a twice-daily ritual in the wake of the Oct. 29 storm, turned tense when reporters asked Butler why the company keeps setting deadlines it can't meet.

Butler responded, as he has in the past, that the state saw a record amount of damage.

"Again, this is the worst storm to hit the state ever," he said.

In addition to restoring power from the Oct. 29 storm, the company is dealing with additional outages that occur for other reasons. CL&P reported about 17,000 new outages Monday morning — they could have been caused by weakened branches weakened falling onto lines, or a car striking a utility pole, Butler said.

Harwinton and Burlington, two communities where significant progress had been made in restoring power lost as a result of the storm, each saw sudden spikes in the number of outages Monday morning. Butler said he did not know why some customers in those towns lost power on Monday.

Meanwhile, Malloy said eight teams from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are touring Connecticut to collect data to help build the case for a major declaration of emergency, a classification that will bring more significant reimbursement for storm-related clean-up costs to cities and towns.

"Whether we ever get to the point where individual assistance would be granted, that's less clear,'' Malloy said. "We do not currently have evidence of that level of damage but we are pushing municipal officials to tell us of damaged homes, damaged businesses and the like. If we get to that, there's a whole additional set of benefits that might be made of available to the public."

Nov 7

Connecticut Light & Power may miss its goal of restoring power to 99 percent of customers by the end of Monday, the company's chief operating officer, Jeffrey Butler, said at a morning press conference — more bad news to people likely to spend a 10th night in cold darkness.

The utility company still aims to restore 99 percent of customers by midnight Monday, he said, "however, given the extent and complexity of the damage in the areas hardest hit by the storm, we may not achieve this goal."

The company had initially set the goal for 99 percent restoration at midnight on Sunday, but it became clear yesterday afternoon that it would not meet that benchmark.

CL&P has 2,836 line and service crews working across the state, with the focus on the Simsbury and Tolland service areas, Butler said.

The Simsbury region covers the hard-hit Farmington Valley, Bloomfield and West Hartford, where more than ten thousands homes and businesses remain without power. The Tolland area serves the north central part of the state, where many small towns continue to cope without power.

Butler said the crews would not be released until all of its customers have had their power restored, and he asked for patience as the workers continue their task.

"It is extremely frustrating, we understand that, and we're doing everything possible to get power restored to customers as quickly as possible," he said. "I know there's frustration out there. I know there's anger out there."

The briefing, a twice-daily ritual in the wake of the Oct. 29 storm, turned tense when reporters asked Butler why the company keeps setting deadlines it can't meet.

Butler responded, as he has in the past, that the state saw a record amount of damage.

"Again, this is the worst storm to hit the state ever," he said.

On Sunday, he apologized for missing the utility company's self-imposed deadline of midnight for having power restored to 99 percent of customers.

In addition to restoring power from the devastating Oct. 29 snowstorm, the company is dealing with additional outages that occur for other reasons. CL&P is reported about 17,000 new outages this morning — they could have been caused by branches weakened in the storm were knocked down, or a car striking a utility pole, Butler said.

Harwinton and Burlington, two communities where significant progress had been made in restoring power lost as a result of the storm, each saw sudden spikes in the number of outages this morning. Butler said he did not know why some customers in those towns lost power today.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy addressed the media before Butler spoke. He said Election Day will proceed as planned tomorrow. Residents have until noon today to register after Malloy signed an executive order last week extending the registration deadline as a result of the storm.

About 98 percent of polling places in the state have power, although in West Hartford, there are as many as six polling places that still lack electricity, Malloy said.

"They will be priorities and we are assured that each town will be in a position to hold its election tomorrow,'' Malloy said, noting that Secretary of the State Denise Merrill is working with CL&P to ensure that.

Meanwhile, Malloy said eight teams from the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are touring Connecticut to collect data to help build the case for a major declaration of emergency, a classification that will bring more significant reimbursement for storm-related clean-up costs to cities and towns.

Whether the state will receive the highest designation, which would allow individuals to recoup costs, remains unclear.

"Whether we ever get to the point where individual assistance would be granted, that's less clear,'' Malloy said. "We do not currently have evidence of that level of damage but we are pushing municipal officials to tell us of damaged homes, damaged businesses and the like. If we get to that, there's a whole additional set of benefits that might be made of available to the public."

Also in Connecticut today is staff from the office of former FEMA administrator Jame Lee Witt, who was retained by Malloy to conduct a review of the power company's performance during and after the storm.

Malloy said the investigation will focus on the companies, CL&P and United Illuminating, not on the government's response. But he said he is analyzing the way state government managed the crisis as well.

"We're constantly reviewing and doing that in the room we've been sitting in hour after hour each day,'' Malloy said. "The Witt review will primarily deal with the utilities because clearly the biggest problem we've had is restoration of power, both in this storm and the Irene storm."

But, he added, "we will go through a very rigorous process internally to look at the things we could have done better should have done better.'' That assessment will be shared with the public as well, he said.

Earlier Sunday, Butler said that 2,313 tree and line crews were working around the state Sunday.

An additional 60 state Department of Transportation crews were working around the state Sunday, including 14 focused on storm debris, and 496 members of the Connecticut National Guard were also dispatched, according to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.

Crews continued to work into Sunday evening and lights began to flicker on in some of the hardest hit communities, including the Lake Garda section of Farmington. But vast swaths of those towns faced another night without power.

Butler urged people who see their neighbors lights come on, but not their own, to call CL&P at 800-286-2000 or 860-947-2000. CL&P may not know some homes are without power, he said.

West Hartford Mayor Scott Slifka described CL&P's results as "far short of acceptable."

One of the towns that will not reach 99 percent restoration is Bloomfield, which as of Sunday afternoon had 44 percent of CL&P customers without power.

Bloomfield Town Council member Joan Gamble said Sunday that Butler's remarks throughout the storm reminded her of a line from the Lone Ranger television series.

"He speaks with forked tongue," Gamble said.

Gamble said she plans to engage her fellow council members and pursue a lawsuit against the utility and that she hopes other towns follow suit.

"There's definitely an appetite for it," she said.

Prior to Sunday's storm update, Malloy revealed that the utility would not meet its self-imposed goal of 99 percent restoration by midnight.

Malloy said that he was trying to give towns and cities time to "make preparations based on the reality of the situation – not what CL&P hopes to have happen – and residents need to make individual decisions about what to do over the next few days."

"To say that I'm frustrated and angry is an understatement," Malloy said at a Sunday press briefing.

Malloy also said that he had instructed state Attorney General George Jepsen's office to participate in the independent review of CL&P's response to the storm.

Jepsen said his office would gather evidence and consider possible actions, including suing the utility on behalf of the state for damages.

Butler reiterated during the briefing that he welcomed the review, but acknowledged that communications between the utility and town and state officials could be improved.

In an email Saturday afternoon, Tolland Town Manager Steve Werbner expressed frustration that his town's percentage of outages had actually increased from 50 to 56 percent and that the town's elderly housing complex remained without power.

"This is a priority but no time frame for repair is given," Werbner said, adding that low hanging wires were interfering with fire apparatus on more than a dozen town roads.

"I have informed our CL&P representative, who is doing a good job with what he has to work with, that his company has no credibility with me and that their performance is beyond unacceptable," Werbner said.

Malloy said Sunday that he had received complaints from many town leaders who said that they were misled by the utility about how many crews were working in their towns, when work would be completed and when power would be restored.

Col. John Whitford, a spokesman for the National Guard, said Sunday that the troop's focus had shifted somewhat from Simsbury and Avon to Windsor Locks, Enfield and Farmington.

CL&P had wrestled outages down below the 10 percent level by Saturday night, restoring power to tens of thousands of people but still leaving a number of towns from the Farmington Valley east to the Massachusetts border still largely cold and dark.

Local officials on Friday said that CL&P would be held responsible if anyone dies because emergency crews couldn't reach them in areas where power lines are still down and electricity is still out.

"It's on their heads,'' said South Windsor Fire Chief Philip Crombie Jr.

The South Windsor Fire Department issued a terse press release, saying people "could die" if CL&P doesn't make wires safe.

Six of the seven Democratic members of the state's U.S. congressional delegation signed a letter Friday that requested an investigation in CL&P's response to the storm.

The Congress members, including U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Joseph I. Lieberman, asked Jon Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to decide whether CL&P violated the Energy Policy Act of 2005 because it restored power to other Northeast states faster than to Connecticut.

Also last week, State House Republican Leader Lawrence Cafero called for a special session in December to deal with legislative proposals aimed at avoiding a similar situation in the future.

Among proposals raised by state lawmakers so far:

--A law, modeled after legislation passed in Massachusetts, that would require a series of benchmarks for utilities companies--with stiff fines if they fail to meet them.

Connecticut Light & Power wrestled outages down to the 15 percent level by early Saturday afternoon, restoring power to tens of thousands of people but still leaving a dozen towns from Farmington to Union mostly cold and dark.

There's been enough progress in many communities that once-bustling emergency shelters are closing or moved to smaller quarters.

With more roads passable, towns are considering reopening schools on Monday. And their municipal road crews are out of emergency mode, instead focusing on how to haul away the heaps of brush and debris that the storm left behind.

The story is dramatically different in the Farmington Valley and north central towns, though, where at least half the homes remain dark. Schools will be closed Monday in West Hartford, Simsbury and other towns.

"It's as bad as it can get. There's so much frustration," said Joan Gamble, a member of the town council in Bloomfield, where CL&P reports 72 percent of its 10,000 customer still have no power. "People at the shelter are getting very agitated. I've been saying I'd like to see that CL&P CEO in an unheated jail cell."

CL&P Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Butler said Saturday morning that the utility is working with seven times its usual number of line crews and are not asking for any more crews form other utility companies. At a press conference, Butler reaffirmed the company's self-imposed midnight Sunday deadline to have power restored to 99 percent of its customers.

As of 3 p.m., a little over 193,000 of CL&P's customers remained without power, about 15 percent of the total.

Butler also said customers who are late paying their October CL&P bill will not be charged late fees.

He continued to take questions about communication with town officials and customers.

"We've gotta be better about communicating changing conditions," Butler said, adding that CL&P has assigned senior managers to specific towns to help work with municipalities.

As mayors and first selectmen were seething Friday on the seventh night without power for many households in their towns, Gov. Dannel P. Malloyordered an independent review of the response by state electric companies to the pre-Halloween snowstorm that plunged the state into darkness.

Malloy announced that a consulting firm led by former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt will conduct a complete review of the response by CL&P and United Illuminating in the wake of the storm. The firm, Witt Associates, will perform the work for free, and Malloy arranged the review after a conversation with a fellow Democratic governor,Martin O'Malley of Maryland. Witt's firm, which specializes in crisis management, has pledged to finish the review by Dec. 1.

"As soon as everyone's lights are back on, we need to have a very timely, thorough review of the power companies' performances, to identify what went wrong, why it went wrong, and most importantly, identify solutions for the short-term before the next winter storm impacts Connecticut," Malloy said.

'People Could Die'

Local officials on Friday said that CL&P would be held responsible if anyone dies because emergency crews couldn't reach them in areas where power lines are still down and electricity is still out.

"It's on their heads,'' said South Windsor Fire Chief Philip Crombie Jr.

The South Windsor Fire Department issued a terse press release, saying people "could die" if CL&P doesn't make wires safe.

The town cleared all roads of trees earlier this week, the release states. But "as of [Friday], dozens of homes remain inaccessible to fire apparatus because CL&P has failed to deploy crews to work with the town."

In Bloomfield, Gamble said a half-dozen or more senior housing complexes remain without heat.

"If any of those seniors die of hypothermia, it's on that CEO's head," she said.

From Simsbury to Union, town officials complained loudly that utility crews were slow in responding as the National Guard was called in to help crews with major tree damage in the hard-hit Farmington Valley.

The complaints from mayors and first selectmen came on the same day that President Barack Obama declared a disaster in Connecticut that will allow cities, towns and Indian tribes to receive 75 percent federal funding for their expenses related to the storm.

After an initial snag, Connecticut will now be eligible for funding for debris removal, as well as overtime, fuel and equipment in all eight counties around the state. The state had originally been designated for a lower level of funding, but that changed on Friday.

"I appreciate President Obama granting this designation," Malloy said. "But while this is good news for the state, and our cities and towns, there is much more work to be done. This really is the beginning of our state's recovery from this devastating October storm, and even after power is fully restored, we'll have weeks — and even months — of recovery on an individual and state, city and town basis."

The storm has become one of the worst in Connecticut history with widespread power outages for a week and at least eight deaths. By Friday night, 322 people had been poisoned by carbon monoxide by operating gasoline-powered generators or charcoal grills inside or too close to their homes. Overall, emergency supplies had been delivered by the National Guard to 82 towns, and 80 shelters were open Friday night as the temperatures dropped sharply.

As the pace of restorations picked up, though, communities including New Britain, Newington and Manchester began closing shelters or relocating them from schools to senior centers. That would let custodians prepare the schools to possibly reopen Monday; most communities in CL&P's service area said they couldn't imagine holding classes this past week because so many wires were still down on roads or along sidewalks.

Mayors and first selectmen in the hard-hit Farmington Valley towns had a special meeting Friday to receive a detailed plan from CL&P, where the company maintained its longstanding pledge of restoring 99 percent of customers by midnight Sunday.

But many officials are skeptical of that schedule.

"We don't think that's possible,'' Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman said Friday. "We've seen the devastation. We've seen the trees. We've seen the lines.''

Simsbury public schools and the nearby St. Mary's School on Route 10 have already been closed for the entire week, and now they will be closed on Monday, too.

"We don't think the bus routes are safe,'' said Glassman, adding that Simsbury High School has become a major shelter that houses 1,500 residents. With the temperatures dropping Friday, the situation was not getting better.

The school schedule is fluid, but as of Friday night, the Simsbury schools were scheduled to be reopened on Tuesday — Election Day. Ballots are traditionally cast in multiple schools around town, but the election has been consolidated to one location at the Henry James Memorial School in the center of town.

In the small town of Union along the Massachusetts border, First Selectman Andy Goodhall expressed his outrage Friday in an email that was sent to two Republican legislators in his district. He said that Union, with among the highest outages in the state, was supposed to receive additional crews that had been promised — and did not arrive.

"I have been lied to. This is unacceptable,'' Goodhall wrote in his email. "Enough is enough. They should not make false promises! I have been patient and co-operative to this point. I promised I would be, unless I was lied to. I have been.''

On a tour of the region Friday, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal toured the cafeteria at Simsbury High School, which has been overrun by out-of-power residents who have been receiving free food and warm surroundings.

The Guard Moves In

The damage was so bad at the height of the storm last Saturday that Glassman, the first selectman, was unable to return to her home because the roads were blocked with trees. As a result, she slept at town hall on Saturday night.

Some residents reported that they had not seen any National Guard troops in town, but Glassman rejected that notion.

"That's not true. I hugged them,'' Glassman said of her reaction to seeing the troops in town.

The Guard worked extensively on Lincoln Lane and Old Meadow Plain in the southern end of Simsbury.

Col. John Whitford, a spokesman for the Guard, said that 168 Guardsmen had been working in Simsbury, as well as in hard-hit areas of Avon and West Hartford.

"CL&P is giving us the streets and telling us where to go,'' Whitford said. "Our side is to clear the road and push it off to the side. They need to go first. We're under the assumption that the lines are still live. We're there until told otherwise.''

Besides helping with moving trees and branches, the Guard has delivered more than 500,000 bottles of water and 330,000 ready-made meals to 81 towns across the state. Those supplies were made available by the federal government and were sent to towns that had requested help.

By mid-day Friday, power had been restored to a portion of the central business district along Route 10 — allowing the opening of town hall, the town library, the popular Metro Bis restaurant, and the Starbucks that is across the street from town hall.

In West Hartford, Watson Collins, CL&P's liaison for the town, initially refused to give town officials a copy of his daily assessment sheet, Mayor Scott Slifka said. Collins told them that it contained confidential information, and the town manager had to press him multiple times for a copy, said Slifka.

Slifka said officials eventually got copies, but the information about the town's expected restoration time had purposely been blacked out.

Slifka said he could read through some of the words that were blacked out, and he said the part he read indicated that CL&P's plans could change.

Slifka said he believes the blacked out words, coupled with plans for a meeting CL&P is trying to arrange in town, indicates that many residents can expect to be in the dark for several days beyond CL&P's self-imposed power restoration deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, he said.

Also, CL&P field supervisors who had been speaking regularly with West Hartford police officers about the company's progress and the location of its workers told police Friday that they couldn't talk with them any longer, Slifka said.

The supervisors told the officers they had to talk to Collins, he said.

Collins could not be reached for comment.

Avon Town Manager Brandon Robertson said he was fed up.

"We were promised crews, and they never showed up. We are mad. Municipal officials, residents … are looking for results."

Delegation Calls For Investigation

Six of the seven Democratic members of the state's U.S. congressional delegation signed a letter Friday that requested an investigation in CL&P's response to the storm.

The Congress members, including U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Joseph I. Lieberman, asked Jon Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to decide whether CL&P violated the Energy Policy Act of 2005 because it restored power to other Northeast states faster than to Connecticut.

"We are also deeply troubled by the reliability of the electric system in Connecticut, as this is the second major power disruption in the last two months. It has also come to our attention that utility customers in the State of Connecticut waited longer than any other state to have their power restored," the letter states. "As a result, we request that you investigate Connecticut Light & Power and Northeast Utilities for any potential violations of Section 215 of the Federal Power Act."

Special Legislative Session?

State House Republican Leader Lawrence Cafero is calling for a special session in December to deal with the proposals.

Cafero cites the bipartisan session on jobs, held on Oct. 26, just days before the freak fall snowstorm that caused the widespread power failure, as a model.

"Knowing that the legislature will not be in regular session until February, we should come back in special session by December to pass legislation that will bolster our state's response to natural disasters and shorten the time anyone is without power,'' Cafero said. "We just demonstrated we could do that quickly with the jobs package we passed, and we need to take action now on emergency preparedness initiatives.''

Among the proposals raised by lawmakers so far:

--A law, modeled after legislation passed in Massachusetts, that would require a series of benchmarks for utilities companies--with stiff fines if they fail to meet them.

--Requiring utilities to train and maintain emergency "stand-by crews'' made up of first responder personnel, retired utility workers as well as local responders such as firefighters. The number of responders would be registered with PURA.

--Mutual aid agreements that specify strict timelines with utilities in other states. The agreement would specify how soon other states must respond to emergencies here and what level of staffing would be provided.

--Increased use of fuel cells in Connecticut to provide more electricity that is "off the grid.''

"The legislature can and must act now before the storm season really sets in to mitigate the possibility for another crisis this winter. We have been hit with two major storms within two months, so the need to act is pretty clear,'' Cafero said.

Dangers Remain

There have been eight storm-related deaths in the state since Saturday's storm, four of which involved carbon-monoxide poisoning.

In Meriden on Friday, two men were hospitalized with possible carbon-monoxide poisoning after they were found on the floor of La Fontana restaurant, 464 Colony St.

They were apparently sleeping in the restaurant, according to Fire Chief James Trainor. Firefighters found them around 9 a.m. on mattresses.

Trainor said the men had been using a generator inside the restaurant with the door closed because the restaurant did not have power. Firefighters also found a propane heater inside the building, and officials were working to determine which led to the unusually high levels of carbon monoxide.

Despite promises from Connecticut Light and Power that 99 percent of the area will have power restored by the end of Sunday, anger flared Friday from town officials whose roads remain blocked by downed wires six days after the storm.

CL&P Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Butler said at a morning press conference that his own home in the Farmington Valley is one of the 309,000 without power.

The utility continues to assess its priorities and is "working with the towns as closely as possible" to restore power, Butler said, and that another 100,000 should have power restored by the end of the day.

But municipal officials are seething about the delays and apparent lack of communication, and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal has called for a federal investigation into the lack of progress.

In West Hartford, Watson Collins, CL&P's liaison for the town, initially refused to give town officials a copy of his daily assessment sheet, Mayor Scott Slifka said.

Collins told them that it contained confidential information, and the town manager had to press him multiple times for a copy, said Slifka.

Slifka said officials eventually got copies but the information about the town's expected restoration time had purposely been blacked out.

Slifka said he could read through some of the words that were blacked out, and he said the part he read said that CL&P's plans could change. "There are parts that are blacked out better than others," he said.

Slifka said he believes the blacked out words, coupled with plans for a meeting CL&P is trying to arrange in town, indicates that many residents can expect to be in the dark for several days beyond CL&P's self-imposed power restoration deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, he said.

Also, CL&P field supervisors who had been speaking regularly with West Hartford police officers about the company's progress and the location of its workers told police Friday that they couldn't talk any more, Slifka said.

The supervisors told the officers they had to talk to Collins, he said.

Collins could not be reached for comment.

According to CL&P, 75 percent of the town, or more than 20,000 customers, are still without power in West Hartford.

The town cleared all roads of trees earlier this week, the release states. But "as of today, dozens of homes remain inaccessible to fire apparatus because CL&P has failed to deploy crews to work with the town."

Residents "could die in fires and homes could burn to the ground," the release states.

"In the last 24 hours, CL&P has taken no action to correct this critical situation … We now feel it necessary to publicly state that we intend to hold the President and Board of Directors of CL&P responsible for any fire deaths, injuries, or property damage in those portions of town that remain inaccessible."

On Oak Street Friday afternoon, Fire Chief Philip Crombie Jr. pointed out seven homes bracketed by fallen wires and trees. Town crews have cleared all other tree-blocked roads and could quickly open the affected streets, he said, but they cannot work around possibly live wires.

"My position is, it's on their heads," Crombie said. "I can't understand why, after seven days, we haven't taken care of public safety."

A CL&P spokesperson could not be reached Friday.

Meanwhile, Federal Emergency Management Agency Deputy Administrator Rich Serino met with state and local officials Friday and visited areas impacted by the nor'easter storm last weekend.

"One thing that struck me is how resilient people from Connecticut are," he said.

Earlier this week, President Barack Obama declared emergencies for Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, authorizing FEMA to coordinate disaster relief efforts to save lives and to protect property and public health and safety, according to a press release from FEMA.

FEMA has deployed liaisons to state emergency management operations centers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire to support and assist coordination and disaster response operations.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Chris Murphy met with town officials in Avon on Friday morning and said they would fight for federal reimbursements and a federal investigation into CL&P.

"I am going to fight … for the kind of emergency relief needed to reimburse these towns for every dollar, nickel and dime owed," Blumenthal said. He said he would fight for funding from FEMA and other sources.

Blumenthal also said he thinks there should be a federal investigation by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He said FERC should investigate the "integrity and safety" of the state's power lines, and said he would push for a state inquiry "to insure that steps are taken … to prevent this from happening again."

Avon was among the hardest hit areas in the state, and 80 percent of customers were still without power on Friday morning, according to the CL&P website.

"As of Thursday, there were 25 impassable roads in Avon," Murphy said. "That is a public safety nightmare. We're gonna fight like heck to make sure Connecticut gets every dime."

Town Manager Brandon Robertson said he was fed up with CL&P's response, and said the town had its public works crews waiting to remove trees after line crews disabled power lines.

"Municipal officials are tired of this situation. It's entirely unacceptable," Robertson said. "Since Sunday, we have been asking for line crews to keep our public works crews working. We've wasted 80 to 100 hours of our crews' time. We were promised crews, and they never showed up. We are mad. Municipal officials, residents … are looking for results."

"Frankly, [CL&P is] going to have to perform miracles to get back up by Sunday," Murphy said.

"It's pretty unexplainable why they've had this area go with hardly any restoration for six days," Murphy said.

At a press conference later in the day, Blumenthal said he was "underwhelmed by the planning that preceded this event. I think that is an understatement. There was completely inadequate preparation in my view."

Blumenthal said CL&P did not have crews available to make sure local public works crews could clear the roads quickly and safely.

"The town public works crews were ready to do the heavy lifting,'' he said. "What they needed was the expertise and involvement of the CL&P crews. The fact that CL&P had no plan ... until days after the snowfall speaks volumes about the lack of preparation. It should have lined up crews.''

Blumenthal and Murphy said regulators might look at requiring public utilities to forge binding mutual aid agreements with other companies to make sure crews arrive to restore power.

"It may be that lock-tight enforceable mutual aide agreements are the best deal for ratepayers,'' Murphy said. "We didn't have lock-tight enforceable mutual aide agreements in this case. We thought there were line crews coming that did not come. We absolutely have to have federal agencies looking into the question of how we can better write and enforce mutual aid agreements.''

"There are a lot of unanswered questions that federal as well as state authorities will have to address,'' added Blumenthal. "There needs to be an overall review of what can be done so that this kind of inadequate response never happens again. There's no excuse for it."

"CL&P is not just any old private business. It has a public trust," Blumenthal said. "It is an exclusive provider of electric power to more than half the state, and right now it is failing a lot of its customers and perhaps should be subject to sanctions even under existing law."

On Thursday night, the Connecticut National Guard was deployed to clear debris clogging hard-hit areas around the state, starting with the towns of Avon and Simsbury.

Malloy announced Thursday evening that, at his request, about 100 National Guard troops have been activated for the operation, which he said will move into still more communities Friday. In addition, CL&P said it is dedicating additional tree crews to help in the cleanup out of concern for possible safety issues.

Butler said the move came in response to acute safety concerns expressed by town officials earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, CL&P was reporting that 30 percent of its customers still remained without power Thursday night after the utility had returned power to 561,000 customers. Butler reiterated his pledge to have electricity to 99 percent of all CL&P customers by midnight Sunday.

Reporters asked Malloy if he had confidence in the utility's self-imposed deadline.

Then he added, "I wouldn't want to be in their shoes if they failed to deliver."

As frustrated customers passed five full days without electricity, CL&P advised in-the-dark customers to beware of scams. The company had received reports of people who either called a customer or showed up at homes, claiming to work for CL&P and asking for $200 in cash to restore power. The utility said that CL&P workers carry identification to show that they are authorized to work on the outage, and they asked customers to immediately report any such requests for cash.

The pre-Halloween storm and its treacherous aftermath have led to eight deaths, including four from carbon monoxide poisoning, two motor vehicle accidents, one all-terrain-vehicle accident and one from a fire. Overall, 276 residents have been treated for carbon monoxide poisoning as they have tried to stay warm in their homes with the help of gasoline-powered generators or charcoal grills.

The Guard troops were called out in order to speed up the process of getting the lights on faster for thousands who initially lost power on Saturday afternoon.

"I, too, am frustrated, as is everyone,'' Malloy said.

When The Bill Comes Due

Earlier in the day, Butler said he expected the storm response to cost the company $75 million to $100 million, based on past events. He declined to say definitively whether the company would seek to pass those costs to ratepayers, saying that decision rests with state regulators.

"I believe the costs we incurred are the costs necessary to serve our customers,'' Butler said.

That belief matters. If CL&P can prove to state regulators that the costs were necessary as part of prudent and well planned operations, the costs can be passed on to ratepayers. Combined with CL&P's cleanup costs associated with Tropical Storm Irene, which could total about $75 million, the 2011 storm costs could be significant.

But ratepayers should not expect to see an increase in their bills anytime soon. All of the expenses of CL&P, or any regulated electric distribution company, are rolled together and considered as part of a rate case whenever the firm seeks one. CL&P last filed a case in late 2009, decided in July 2010.

So far, a spokesman for the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority said Thursday, CL&P has not yet filed to collect expenses for Irene.

"They can go in specifically on the issue of recovering storm-related expenses," spokesman Dennis Schain said, or they can wait until a future rate case.

When the authority — formerly the state Department of Public Utility Control — decides on allowable expenses, it also decides how long a period of years those expenses should be spread out, "so that it won't create a spike in rates," Shacin said.

With CL&P's total annual expenses exceeding $2.5 billion, it's unlikely the storm costs would add a large percentage to ratepayers' bills. The rates already allow $9.6 million a year in storm expenses and CL&P can collect a few million more dollars through insurance.

'Vigilante Tree Cutters'

Mayors and first selectmen continued to express anger at the pace of CL&P's efforts to restore electricity, particularly in hard-hit areas such as the Farmington Valley.

James Finley, chief executive officer of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, participated in a conference call with 29 mayors and first selectmen in the Capitol Region Council of Governments with CL&P official Dan Moore, who is well known at the Capitol for his representation of the company. The mayors and town managers were highly frustrated over the response so far.

"They're lucky that the CL&P guys were on the phone,'' Finley said. "They'd hang these guys now. They're doubting they will have 99 percent of the state back on Sunday. There was a lot of frustration from municipal officials.''

Simsbury First Selectman Mary Glassman, who participated in the same conference call as Finley, said: "Towns are not getting the information they need in terms of power restoration. The information we're getting is spotty and not accurate and incomplete. … We need better coordination and better information.''

Throughout the Farmington Valley, including Avon and Granby, residents are simply not seeing CL&P trucks on their streets. But CL&P has pledged to meet Friday with leaders of the valley towns to unveil a detailed plan for power restoration.

In a particularly dangerous move, some Simsbury residents have apparently taken matters into their own hands and have started to remove the trees, brush, and downed wires themselves, Glassman said. The problem is that, with the use of generators nearby, the power lines that someone believes are dead could actually become re-energized.

"Folks are going out there and cutting wires,'' Glassman said. "That's not town crews. They're becoming vigilante tree cutters.''

In West Hartford, Mayor Scott Slifka taped a "robocall'' that was sent automatically to the phones of his town's homeowners.

"I do wish that I had better news about the restoration of power to your homes,'' Slifka said. "CL&P continues to move at a glacial pace. While additional crews have been dispatched to West Hartford, the number remains starkly insufficient. At present, power has been restored to approximately 11 percent of our homes. Additionally, CL&P has advised that its initial estimate of 99 percent restoration by midnight on Sunday was too optimistic. Unfortunately, we have not been provided with a revised estimate.''

Like Glassman and Slifka, Malloy noted the slow pace of the restorations and the questions about the 99 percent deadline. "I wonder myself – getting out there and seeing the extent of this damage,'' Malloy said of the target.

The town of Vernon is awaiting a new generator to replace the one that stopped working at the sewage pump station on Phoenix Avenue, Mayor Jason McCoy said.

A member of the National Guard was in town Friday, he said, "I believe because it's coming and they're going to hook it up."

"We need to have a realistic effort to get this situation resolved, and I am concerned about Connecticut Water," McCoy said.

The generator at Connecticut Water is failing, which could leave about 80 percent of residents without drinking water and compromise fire suppression efforts, he said.

But Dan Meaney, spokesman for the utility, there is no imminent danger of people losing water service. He said the generator is running, but company officials are concerned because generators are not meant to run for extended periods of time.

"Our vice president of service deliveries was speaking with a Connecticut Light & Power representative to make sure they know what our priorities are," he said. "I know they're working on it and I think, thanks to the efforts of Mayor McCoy, it's become a top priority for them. I'm sure it will get taken care of sooner rather than later."

McCoy said the town's waste treatment plant on Windsorville Road lost power late Thursday, but CL&P restored power to the plant around 4 a.m. Friday morning.

Officials from Farmington and Avon vented their frustration during a press conference at the Farmington Marriott.

"It's an intolerable situation," said Farmington Town Council Chairman Michael Clark. According to the CL&P website, 95 percent of that town was still in the dark as of 5 p.m. Thursday, and in Avon, 87 percent of customers were still waiting for power.

Clark said one CL&P crew was in Farmington for the first five days without power, and on Thursday there were three crews.

"We need about 10 times that to see any real progress," said Mark Zacchio, Avon Town Council chairman.

Clark and Zacchio said the towns' public works crews are ready to clear trees when power lines are all disconnected.

"We feel like we're being held hostage by the utility company," he said. "We have the manpower ready to clear, but if there's wires, we can't touch them. We're just asking for line crews so our guys can clear."

Clark said he "wouldn't be averse" to filing a lawsuit against CL&P "after we get through this."

Irene Response

Butler defended CL&P's use of temporary repairs to fix its power system following Tropical Storm Irene. In documents submitted to the state's regulatory agency, high-ranking CL&P officials revealed that an independent assessment of the utility's power system following Irene is due next week.

CL&P hired a consultant in early October to assess the whole distribution system and identify areas that needed to be fixed. But as the fluke October storm bore down on the state last weekend, the final assessment of the 17,000-mile system had not been supplied to the company.

"The company recognizes that the need to quickly restore electric service to our customers may have been accomplished in some cases by temporary construction methods,'' CL&P Vice President Robert T. Hybsch wrote. In addition, he said, the electric system may have been damaged in ways not easily identified.

Butler said that hiring the consultant to analyze the damage was standard practice. He acknowledged that temporary repairs were performed after Irene but said all of them were safe and done by qualified linemen. He said he didn't think the temporary work performed following Irene impacted the large number of power outages this time.

"The damage that was done to our system this time was because of a large amount of tree damage, not because of any temporary work that was done,'' Butler said.

But union officials said Thursday some of the work done by crews from out of state "was below the standards set by the CL&P lineman."

"Towards the end of Irene when politicians were barking at them and they were scrambling to try and get power restored as quick as possible, they bought in anybody they could and threw out some of the checks and procedures we follow,'' said Rich Sank of Local 42.

CL&P and United Illuminating have been submitting documents to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in response to questions from the Tropical Storm Irene Commission that is reviewing both companies' storm responses. Malloy announced this week he has asked that commission to also investigate CL&P's performance in this storm as well.

Attorney General Seeks Inquiry

State Attorney General George Jepsen on Thursday called for an investigation into CL&P's handling of the snowstorm and the subsequent blackout. He made the request of the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on Thursday.

"I have received numerous complaints from affected citizens, many of whom are still waiting for their power to be restored," Jepsen said in a written statement. "Reliable electric service is a matter of public health and safety, and Connecticut's citizens deserve to know that the utilities and the State are doing everything possible to provide electric service as soon as possible."

Among the issues that need to be addressed, he said, are "CL&P's preparations for the magnitude of the storm; its advance reservation and payment procedures for out-of-state work crews; and the effectiveness of its response to the damage on the ground."

The authority on Sept. 22 began the response of reviewing CL&P and United Illuminating Co.'s response to Tropical Storm Irene, which also resulted in days-long power outages to hundreds of thousands of customers. He suggested that investigation be expanded to include CL&P's response to this storm as well.

Similarly, Malloy has already said he intends to ask a special task force investigating the utilities' response to Tropical Storm Irene to investigate their response to last weekend's snowstorm as well, making it what he called a "two-storm commission."

DEEP To Review Staffing Levels

The issue of staffing came up at the governor's morning storm briefing. Malloy said CL&P's staffing levels were approved by state regulators in 2008.

"In 2008 ... it was decided that current staffing levels were the acceptable level for current provision of day-to-day services. Obviously they kept that service number,'' Malloy said. "I'm not defending what [regulators] did in 2008, I'm simply stating...in [a] time before I was governor, that decision was actually brought and that decision was actually rendered."

"I think [regulators are] going to have to take a look at that issue in light of the difficulties we're having,'' Malloy added.

A reporter asked Butler if the company has enough crews on a daily basis.

"To do the normal work we do every day, yes we do,'' Butler responded. "I believe between our crews on the property and the contractors that we use that are here virtually all the time, we have resources to do the day-to-day business as well as storms.''

The top state utility regulator, Daniel C. Esty, said he intends to examine both everyday staffing levels, including the use of contractors, and the company's emergency response plan.

"One issue is whether the everyday level of line crew staffing is adequate, and frankly [that's] a question as well, from my point of view, that we're going to look into,'' Esty said after the formal briefing had concluded.

Esty, commissioner of the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said the staffing levels approved in 2008 will be scrutinized "because I think there's a significant issue [with] not only the core level of staffing but the break down between permanent line crews and contractors.

"There's a greater ability to manage your own team,'' Esty said."It may well be there was an inadequate number of on-staff line crews, too much reliance on contractors, so that's a question we're looking at.''

Esty said his department will also look at "whether [CL&P's] game plan for a storm is adequate in any case. There's a very, very big question about whether the preparation for this storm, and for any significant storm, was at the scale necessary … that is an issue that needs to be looked into carefully, as to whether there is a storm preparation plan in place that is appropriate to the scale of the issues we're facing.''

HARTFORD — As mayors and first selectmen were seething Friday on the seventh night without power for many households in their towns, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy ordered an independent review of the response by state electric companies to the pre-Halloween snowstorm that plunged much of the state into darkness.

Malloy, town leaders and citizens throughout the state continued complaining that Connecticut Light & Power Co. has not been moving fast enough as 282,000 customers were still without power Friday night.

Malloy announced that a consulting firm led by James Lee Witt, former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will conduct a complete review of the response by CL&P and the United Illuminating Co. in the aftermath of the storm. The firm, Witt Associates, will perform the work for free, and Malloy arranged the review after a conversation with a fellow Democratic governor, Martin O’Malley of Maryland. Witt’s firm, which specializes in crisis management, has pledged to finish the review by Dec. 1.

“As soon as everyone’s lights are back on, we need to have a very timely, thorough review of the power companies’ performances, to identify what went wrong, why it went wrong, and most importantly, identify solutions for the short term before the next winter storm impacts Connecticut,” Malloy said.

Local officials on Friday said that CL&P would be held responsible if anyone dies because emergency crews couldn’t reach them in areas where power lines are still down and electricity is still out.

“It’s on their heads,’’ said South Windsor Fire Chief Philip Crombie Jr.

From Simsbury to Union, local officials complained loudly that utility crews were slow in responding as the National Guard was called in to help crews with major tree damage in the hard-hit Farmington Valley.

Despite the complaints, CL&P repeated its pledge that 99 percent of customers would have their power restored by midnight Sunday.

Federal Aid Upgraded

The complaints from mayors and first selectmen came on the same day that President Barack Obama declared a disaster in Connecticut that will allow cities, towns and Indian tribes to receive 75 percent federal funding for their expenses related to the storm.

After an initial snag, Connecticut will now be eligible for federal funding for debris removal, as well as overtime, fuel and equipment in all eight counties in the state. The state had originally been designated for a lower level of funding, but that status changed on Friday.

“I appreciate President Obama granting this designation,” Malloy said. “But while this is good news for the state, and our cities and towns, there is much more work to be done. This really is the beginning of our state’s recovery from this devastating October storm, and even after power is fully restored, we’ll have weeks — and even months — of recovery on an individual and state, city and town basis.”

The storm has become one of the worst in Connecticut history, with widespread power outages for a week and at least eight deaths. By Friday night, 322 people had been poisoned by carbon monoxide by operating gasoline-powered generators or charcoal grills inside or too close to their homes. Overall, emergency supplies had been delivered by the National Guard to 82 towns, and 80 shelters were open Friday night as temperatures dropped sharply.

Anger, Skepticism

Mayors and first selectmen in the hard-hit Farmington Valley towns had a special meeting Friday to receive a detailed plan from CL&P, where the company maintained its long-standing pledge of restoring 99 percent of customers by midnight Sunday.

But many officials were skeptical of that schedule.

“We don’t think that’s possible,’’ Sims-bury First Selectman Mary Glassman said in an interview Friday. “We’ve seen the devastation. We’ve seen the trees. We’ve seen the lines.’’

Simsbury public schools and the nearby St. Mary’s School on Route 10 have already been closed for the week, and now they will be closed on Monday, too.

“We don’t think the bus routes are safe,’’ said Glassman, adding that Sims-bury High School has become a major shelter that houses 1,500 residents. With the temperatures dropping Friday, the situation was not getting better.

The school schedule is fluid, but as of Friday night, Simsbury schools were scheduled to reopen on Tuesday — Election Day. Ballots are traditionally cast in multiple schools throughout town, but the voting has been consolidated to one location at the Henry James Memorial School in the center of town.

In the small town of Union along the Massachusetts border, First Selectman Andy Goodhall expressed his outrage Friday in an email that was sent to two Republican legislators in his district. He said that Union, which had one of the highest percentages of customers without power (86 percent as of Friday night), was supposed to receive additional crews that had been promised — and did not arrive.

“I have been lied to. This is unacceptable,’’ Goodhall wrote in his email. “Enough is enough. They should not make false promises! I have been patient and co-operative to this point. I promised I would be, unless I was lied to. I have been.’’

He ended the email with “HELP!’’

The Guard Moves In

On a tour of the region Friday, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal visited the cafeteria at Simsbury High School, which has been overrun by out-of-power residents who have been receiving free food in warm surroundings.

The damage was so bad at the height of the storm last Saturday that Glassman, the first selectman, was unable to return to her home because trees were blocking the roads. She slept at town hall on Saturday night.

By midday Friday, residents noted that there was relatively little progress in Simsbury. Townwide, 84 percent of customers were still without power.

Some residents reported that they had not seen any National Guard troops in town, but Glassman refuted that.

“That’s not true. I hugged them,’’ Glassman said of her reaction to seeing the troops in town.

The Guard worked extensively on Lincoln Lane and Old Meadow Plain in the southern end of Simsbury.

Col. John Whitford, a spokesman for the Guard, said that 168 Guardsmen had been working in Simsbury, as well as in hard-hit areas of Avon and West Hart-ford.

Besides helping with moving trees and branches, the Guard has delivered more than 500,000 bottles of water and 330,000 ready-made meals to 81 towns throughout the state. Those supplies were made available by the federal government and were sent to towns that had requested help.

Even though most of Simsbury was still without power by midday Friday, electricity had been restored to a portion of the central business district along Route 10 — allowing the opening of town hall, the town library, the Metro Bis restaurant and the Starbucks across the street from town hall.

In West Hartford, Watson Collins, CL&P’s liaison for the town, initially refused to give town officials a copy of his daily assessment sheet, Mayor Scott Slifka said.

Collins told them that it contained confidential information, and the town manager had to press him multiple times for a copy, said Slifka.

Slifka said that officials eventually got copies, but the information about the town’s expected restoration time had purposely been blacked out.

Slifka said he could read through some of the words that were blacked out, and he said the part he read indicated that CL&P’s plans could change.

Slifka said he believes the blacked-out words, coupled with plans for a meeting CL&P is trying to arrange in town, indicate that many residents can expect to be in the dark for several days beyond CL&P’s self-imposed power restoration deadline of 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, he said. Collins could not be reached for comment. In Avon, Town Manager Brandon Robertson said he was fed up. “We were promised crews, and they never showed up. We are mad. Municipal officials, residents … are looking for results.”

Call For Federal Investigation Six of the seven members of the state’s U.S. congressional delegation signed a letter Friday that requested an investigation into CL&P’s response to the storm.

The legislators, including Blumenthal and U.S. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, asked Jon Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, to decide whether Northeast Utilities — CL&P’s parent company — violated the Energy Policy Act of 2005 because NU restored power to other Northeast states faster than to Connecticut.

“We are also deeply troubled by the reliability of the electric system in Connecticut, as this is the second major power disruption in the last two months. It has also come to our attention that utility customers in the State of Connecticut waited longer than any other state to have their power restored,” the letter states. “As a result, we request that you investigate Connecticut Light & Power and Northeast Utilities for any potential violations of Section 215 of the Federal Power Act.”

Special Legislative Session?

State House Republican leader Lawrence Cafero is calling for a special session in December to deal with proposals raised so far and with others.

Cafero cites the bipartisan session on jobs, held on Oct. 26, just days before the fall snowstorm that caused the widespread power failure, as a model.

“Knowing that the legislature will not be in regular session until February, we should come back in special session by December to pass legislation that will bolster our state’s response to natural disasters and shorten the time anyone is without power,’’ Cafero said. “We just demonstrated we could do that quickly with the jobs package we passed, and we need to take action now on emergency preparedness initiatives.’’

Among the proposals raised by lawmakers so far:

• A law, modeled after legislation passed in Massachusetts, that would require a series of benchmarks for utility companies, with stiff fines if they fail to meet them.

• A requirement that gas stations and senior housing developments have emergency generators.

• Requiring utilities to train and maintain emergency “standby crews’’ made up of first-responder personnel, retired utility workers as well as local responders. The number of responders would be registered with the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.

• Mutual aid agreements that specify strict timelines with utilities in other states. The agreement would specify how soon other states must respond to emergencies here and what level of staffing would be provided.

A 35-year-old East Hart-ford woman who was cooking with charcoal inside her apartment and a Bloomfield woman who ran a generator in her basement apparently died of carbon-monoxide poisoning on Wednesday, officials said.

Two other people have died of carbon-monoxide poisoning since the October snowstorm cut power to hundreds of thousands of residents. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said 187 people have been treated for carbon-monoxide poisoning.

As of Wednesday night, there have been eight storm-related deaths in the state, including that of a West Hartford woman who died in a fire at her home on Tuesday night.

Ida Schaechter, 78, was killed and her husband Harry, 82, was hospitalized after the fire at a home at 4 High Wood Road.

The fire was reported shortly after 9 p.m. Fire officials believe the fire started in a room with a fireplace.

Power was still out at the home, and the Schaechters may have been trying to heat their home, firefighters said.

Police said Tuesday that the street where the couple lived was blocked by downed trees and power lines, making it difficult for crews to get to the fire.

Firefighters said Harry Schaechter escaped the home on his own and sought help from a neighbor. He was taken toSt. Francis Hospital and Medical Centerfor observation and is expected to be OK.

Ida Schaechter was found in a bedroom. She was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Hartford, where she had been teaching at Hillyer College since 1994, said university spokesman David Isgur.

Her online biography says she taught mathematics.

“It’s a tragedy. This is someone who was part of the university family and had been teaching here for close to 20 years. There are a lot people that will be saddened to hear the news,” Isgur said.

“This was an incredible couple, and even in their elderly age, they were still giving back,” said Sen. Beth Bye of West Hartford, a friend of the couple.

In East Hartford, police were investigating the death of a young woman who was found in her apartment on Burnside Avenue on Wednesday before noon, said police Lt. Curt Stoldt.

“It appears that she was using charcoal to heat food in her home,” he said. The woman’s name was not released because police were notifying her family.

In Bloomfield, a 29-year-old woman was found dead at a home on Harding Avenue Tuesday night.

Officials found a generator in the basement of the home, said Bloomfield Capt. Jeff Blatter.

The generator had been running until it ran out of gas and had insufficient ventilation, he said.

“All indications are that the cause of death is carbon-monoxide related,” Blatter said Wednesday afternoon. The fire department found fatal levels of the gas in the house, he said.

The Bloomfield woman’s name also was not released as officials sought to notify her family.

Police identified the 87-year-old woman who died of carbon-monoxide poisoning in Enfield Tuesday as Mary J. Guerriero of O’Hear Avenue.

Guerriero’s husband and son were treated for carbon-monoxide poisoning and released, police said.

The other residents whose deaths have been storm-related are Richard S. Rothschild, 85, of Sharon, who died of carbon-monoxide poisoning; Christopher A. Noyes, 43, who died in an ATV accident involving a low-hanging wire; Alan Sheppard, 32, of Hartford, who died Sunday in a motor vehicle accident on I-91; and Linda Peddle, 51, who was in a weather-related accident along Route 85 in Vernon.

Other emergency calls have kept fire and police departments busy across Connecticut.

In Colebrook, firefighters responded to a fire on Greenwoods Turnpike Tuesday night, an emergency dispatcher said.

Although the fire was contained to the fireplace, smoke backed up into the house because the damper was closed, a firefighter said. There was no power in the house.

Farmington officials have responded to buildings with high carbon-monoxide readings, but no one became sick, said Police Chief Paul Melanson, who answered the phone in the emergency operations center set up at the police department Wednesday afternoon.

Canton officials, too, have had to respond to carbon-monoxide detectors sounding. But no one has been sick yet, a dispatcher there said.

As entire towns remained without power two days after a historic October snowstorm, the state’s largest utility said Monday that it was stepping up its efforts to restore electricity to more than 700,000 customers still without power as of Monday night.

Connecticut Light & Power Co.’s chief executive officer said more crews will be arriving in Connecticut each day this week to assist CL&P crews that are restoring power, but officials repeated their warning that it could take more than a week to get power back to everyone.

While local officials sought answers to when utility crews would begin working in their towns, people struggling without power at their homes crisscrossed their communities in search of open grocery stores, coffee shops and gas stations — and hotels with vacancies. Rooms were so scarce that some hotels helped people find lodging in Rhode Island.

As many as 884,000 customers lost power after Saturday’s storm, which dropped up to 20 inches of wet, heavy snow in some parts of the state.

“Road clearing is a massive effort,” Jeffrey Butler, CL&P’s president and CEO, said Monday evening in a briefing at the state armory. Town and state crews are working to clear fallen trees and limbs from roads, but can’t do so in many cases until wires are checked by power company crews.

“We expect the pace of restoration to quicken as damage assessments are completed, blocked roads are cleared, and additional crews arrive to help with the effort,” Butler said. Restoration will take a week or more in some areas, he said.

Also Monday, President Barack Obama declared that an emergency exists in Connecticut. Federal aid will be available for costs associated with the storm.

“This is a first stage declaration,’’ Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said. “There are other stages which we will continue to work on which would allow for reimbursement of expenditures by state and local governments, but this is a good first start and I want to thank the president as well as our congressional delegation for their help.”

Malloy toured the state by helicopter Monday to view the damage.

Obama’s declaration authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts. Specifically, FEMA is authorized “to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency,’’ according to the announcement by the White House.

CL&P officials said that power to about 204,000 customers had been restored as of Monday and that 13 of the 44 major transmission lines knocked out by the storm have been repaired. Repairing those lines is a key step in the restoration process, officials said.

Butler said Monday night that 314 line crews and 185 tree crews worked Monday, and that 519 line crews and 326 tree crews would be at work Tuesday.

The number will increase through the week, Butler said. United Illuminating crews will work in CL&P territory once their restoration efforts are complete, officials said. UI’s chief executive officer said on Sunday that he hoped to have all customers restored by Monday night, but on Monday he said the goal wouldn’t be reached until Tuesday.

Butler said that CL&P crews will focus on getting commercial areas restored quickly so that basic services such grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations will be available.

“We understand the challenges that customers face, not only with the basics of life,’’ Butler said. “Given the cold temperatures, it is very challenging. We understand that. ... We’re doing everything possible to expedite not only the road openings … but also the restoration of power.’’

On Sunday night, CL&P reported that nearly every town had at least one crew assigned to it, with a priority of coordinating with local officials. A new system of assigning liaisons to towns — first used during Tropical Storm Irene — has helped open the lines of communication with the utility. But it hasn’t been much of a help because the company doesn’t have the answers, some local officials said.

“Is this five days or is this10 days? We don’t have the answers to those questions,” said West Hartford Town Manager Ron Van Winkle, whose own house in the town is without power. “I should be able to say, ‘We’re working in this area, we’re working in that area.’ … I know they’re very reticent about trying to give us answers but when we have direct contact with the public, that’s the question we’re getting.”

In some towns, frustration began building as officials could not secure a commitment from CL&P when crews would start repairing damage.

In Plainville, Town Manager Robert Lee said he had received only very vague estimates when CL&P repair crews will be in town.

“I have people on the ground ready to go but we need CL&P here,” Lee said. “We have 28 roads closed in Plainville and we’ve only been able to clear seven of them. At that rate we won’t have the roads all cleared until the end of the week and that is unacceptable.”

CL&P officials said the blocked roads have made some areas inaccessible to the company crews assessing the damage, and that’s slowing the restoration effort.

Company officials continue to urge people who come across downed lines to consider them live and to stay away from them.

Some also had harsh words for state Department of Transportation efforts to help clear away debris left in the wake of the storm.

New Fairfield First Selectmen John Hodge said that because so many trees had fallen on roads, firefighters were unable to get to a house fire near Squantz Pond. Hodge said it took volunteer firefighters almost an hour to cut through the branches and trees on Route 39 to try to reach the house.

Firefighters eventually decided to use a boat and run a hose from the boat in Squantz Pond to get water on the fire. By the time they were able to reach the home, it was destroyed. Hodge said no one was home.

Hodge was highly critical of the DOT, which had not cleared any state roads in the area two days after the storm. New Fairfield is intersected by Routes 37 and 39, neither of which was passable for more than two days, Hodge said.

“CL&P is a pretty easy target for everyone, but the DOT seems to escape blame,’’ Hodge said. “They didn’t cut one tree in our town during Irene and I expect this storm will be the same. Our own crews will have to do the job or it won’t get done.”

In Berlin, town crews were getting generators to run sewer pump stations that had lost power.

Hampering police efforts was a shortage of gasoline. Berlin Deputy Police Chief John Klett said many gas stations in the area are without power and those that do have electricity have run out of fuel because so many people are coming to them.

In West Hartford, a crowd of people dressed in winter coats and gloves stood outside Barnes & Noble in Blue Back Square Monday, waiting to get in. The doors opened at 10 a.m., and people piled in. They were happy just to be warm.

Meg Keough and her daughter, Mirielle Keough Crane, 4, were among those who went to the bookstore Monday. “Our house was 50 degrees when we left it,” Keough said.

Keough said they couldn’t stay at home because of the temperature and because her husband, who works for Northeast Utilities, was sleeping. He was up all night and has to return to work Monday afternoon, she said.

Keough has a gas stove and can still cook while her electricity is out. She said she was using bags of snow to keep food in her refrigerator and freezer cold.

The rare October snowstorm that smacked the state this weekend eclipsed Tropical Storm Irene in power outages, leaving as many as 884,000 customers without electricity and resulting in dire estimates that it might take more than a week for many people to have their service restored.

On Sunday, state residents hunted for open grocery stores, coffee shops and gas stations — and hotels with vacancies. The wait was about 30 minutes at one Shell station near the state Capitol. Rooms were so scarce that some hotels helped people find lodging in Rhode Island.

“This is an historic storm,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said. “This is the largest number of power outages we have ever experienced.”

Malloy said the extent of the damage was “much more serious than Irene,” which cut power to 767,000 customers at its peak. The difference in this storm, said Jeffrey Butler, president and chief operating officer of Connecticut Light & Power, is that the snow and ice damaged 44 transmission lines, including 21 that have resulted in substations losing power.

The state Department of Transportation said that the storm knocked down five times as many trees as Irene.

Butler predicted “lengthy outages” of more than a week for about 15,000 trouble spots, although most customers will see power return in less than a week, he said. At 11 p.m. Sunday, 770,290 CL&P customers and 13,647 United Illuminating customers were without power.

United Illuminating, which serves 17 communities in the New Haven area, expects to restore power to all customers by Monday night, said spokesman Michael West. UI has 133 crews working.

Malloy said that restoring power to grocery stores and gas stations would be a priority. He has asked President Barack Obama to declare Connecticut a disaster area so that it can qualify for federal assistance. He said that the state’s application is being reviewed.

Utility company officials said that crews spent Sunday assessing the damage. Service was restored to about 125,000 power customers Sunday night, but with power outages of up to a week predicted, many towns closed schools for at least Monday and opened shelters.

CL&P has more than 300 crews working to restore power throughout the state, Butler said. It plans to add 450 crews from out of state, which are expected to arrive from the South and Midwest by Tuesday at the latest. UI said it will send its crews to help CL&P once they are finished restoring power to UI customers.

Frank Poirot, a CL&P spokesman, said that crews were determining the “extent of the damage.” Crews were also working to resolve emergencies, making areas with downed wires safe and helping town and state crews open roads, he said.

At least one death in Connecticut, in a traffic accident on Route 85 in Colchester, was attributed to the storm.

The storm also left roads in shambles. Although the major arteries in and around Hartford were generally clear Sunday morning, the wet, heavy snow from the freak October storm turned side roads throughout the state into a dangerous obstacle course. Downed trees and wires blocked roads or restricted them to one lane. Throughout the state Sunday, new problems continued to arise. Emergency responders were answering new calls for downed trees, limbs and wires. Malloy said that trees across roadways would likely by pushed aside by state and local highway crews to make roads passable, once power company crews ensure that the power is off.

Amtrak suspended service between New Haven and Springfield and between Providence and Bos-ton. Metro-North was operating on a Sunday schedule.

Operations at Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks were moving slowly back to normal after extraordinary storm-related delays. On Saturday, an estimated 200 JetBlue passengers were stranded on a plane for seven hours with no food, water or working bathrooms. JetBlue spokeswoman Victoria Lucia said that the company was coupling refunds for all passengers diverted to Bradley with vouchers for a round-trip ticket and an apology.

An American Airlines flight from Paris to JFK Airport in New York was also trapped on the Bradley tarmac for a total of 7 hours and 27 minutes, according to American Airlines spokesman Ed Martelle.

A source familiar with the situation said that the airline asked if the passengers could wait in the departure lounge, but was told by airport officials that police would intervene to stop passengers from leaving the plane.

The FAA has said that it is “undertaking a comprehensive review of Saturday’s operations in the northeast including air traffic procedures, aircraft diversions, weather and equipment performance.”

Widespread Damage

The storm has already caused more damage and power outages in some towns than Irene. In the Farmington Valley, for example,100 percent of CL&P customers were without power Saturday night and into Sunday morning. In Glastonbury, many local roads were impassable due to tangles of fallen branches and power lines. And in West Hartford, tree limbs took down power lines, broke utility poles, blocked roads and ripped electrical service from houses.

As day broke Sunday and the extent of the damage became clear, heat — or the lack of it — loomed as a major issue.

Litchfield County had the most snowfall, with the Bakersville section of New Hartford receiving 18.6 inches, Winsted 18 inches and Litchfield 16.5. In other areas of the state, Danbury with 17.2 inches and Bristol with 17 inches received the highest totals. Towns and cities along the shoreline were spared from deep snows, with Stonington receiving only 0.9 inches and Grot-on 1.5 inches. New Haven had 2.8 inches.

The power outages differed sharply across the state as more than 90 percent of the CL&P customers were without power in Plainville, Suffield, Marlborough, Kent, Cornwall and Goshen. All customers lost power in Redding, Ashford, Bolton and Union.

Warming centers opened throughout the state to offer those without heat some relief, while hotels with power were inundated with customers.

The Hartford Marriott was completely booked Sunday night, and director of hotel operations Robert Smith said the staff spent the day scrambling to help people find available rooms in other hotels, some as far away as Rhode Island.

“We are extremely busy with the storm — we have a lot of empathy for the folks coming in because of the power loss,” Smith said. “It’s really a tough thing to go through.”

Connecticut wasn’t alone, with about 3 million people throughout the Northeast without power. In New Jersey, more than 665,000 were without power, according to The Associated Press. The AP also reported more than 560,000 outages in Pennsylvania, 320,000 in Massachusetts and 260,000 in New York.

The storm was historic in several ways. With 12.3 inches falling at Bradley, it was the largest snowstorm in Greater Hartford history in October — dwarfing any previous storm in the region. An early October storm in 1987 in Norfolk in Litchfield County dropped 9.5 inches in the town that is known as “the icebox of Connecticut.’’

Butler said that CL&P was working hard to communicate with customers and town officials — a subject that became a source of contention in the aftermath of Irene.

Another issue that Malloy raised Sunday was cellphone service problems. AT&T has 164 cell sites out across the state and cell service is expected to degrade, he said. The problem is not just power, but cables used to transmit data, he said.

State officials said that six hospitals lost power and were using generators. They are Mid-State Medical Center in Meriden, Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford, Manchester Memorial Hospital, Rockville General Hospital and Charlotte Hungerford Hospital in Torrington.

Dangerous Roads

The conditions Saturday became so bad that Malloy banned non-emergency vehicles from the Merritt and Wilbur Cross parkways for fear that tree limbs would strike passing cars. That ban was lifted Sunday.

Those who ventured onto the roads found few businesses that were open. Those that were open were crowded. There were long lines at gas stations as motorists tried to top off their vehicles and buy gas for snow blowers.

The gas ran out at an Exxon station in Rocky Hill, forcing those in line to go elsewhere.

“It’s crazy. Usually I fill up before a storm, but I didn’t think the storm would be this bad,” said Linda Pelletier of Rocky Hill. “I feel like I’m back in the ’70s when we had gas shortages.”

Several West Hartford police officers were running on fumes as they waited to fuel their patrol cars. On unday afternoon, police were able to get two gas station owners to allow them exclusive access to pumps until all vehicles were fueled up.

Peter Pan Bus Lines canceled service Saturday evening between New York and Boston, but said service resumed Sunday morning.

Both Malloy and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared states of emergency, which gives them additional powers to combat the huge storm that touched multiple states.

On Saturday, numerous crashes and bumper-to-bumper traffic forced police to shut down Route 44 by midafternoon on both sides of Avon Mountain in West Hartford and Avon. In pockets around the state, the roads were packed in the midafternoon as motorists either ignored the storm or got caught by surprise and were unable to get home as quickly as they thought they could. In Fairfield County, the storm hit a few hours earlier than had been expected.

Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton ordered all local roads shut down by 4 p.m. The mayor said only emergency vehicles would be allowed in order to clear away cars that have gotten stuck.

“It’s not supposed to snow in October, but no one told Mother Nature,” said Geoff Fox, meteorologist at FOX CT. Fox said the weather conditions had caused “thunder snow’’ — typically a once-a-year event in the weather world.

In Bristol, there were hazardous conditions all along Route 6, with power lines down and several traffic lights out. But there was still no lack of motorists as the storm intensified.

At Bradley, 23 domestic and international flights had been diverted by 6:30 p.m. Saturday — just short of the airport’s all-time record of 27 diverted flights, Malloy said. An airport monitor said that flights coming from Zurich, Paris and Madrid had all been diverted to Bradley when they could not immediately land at John F. Kennedy International Airportin New York City.

Multiple passengers spent the night in the airport and were provided with cots, water and meals, airport spokesman John Wallace said.

Bradley communications director John Wallace said Sunday that the delays occurred when the airport, which remained open through the storm, was overwhelmed by a combination of the diverted flights, normally scheduled traffic and power-related problems at the federal customs installation, where international travelers are screened.

“Our plate got too full is what happened,” Wallace said. “We didn’t have the personnel response to handle those diversions.”

Wallace said the stranded travelers, who numbered between 1,000 and 1,500 people, were generally understanding and good-natured.

The airport set up about 900 cots and provided bottled water and a simple breakfast Sunday for stranded travelers.